Malcolm's finger pointing isn't fooling anyone

Dennis Shanahan, Political Editor August 05, 2009
Article from: The Australian

GODWIN Grech is now a liar, a fraud and sneak who misled Malcolm Turnbull,
his hard-nosed Senate colleague, Eric Abetz, the parliament and the Australian
people, according to the Opposition Leader.

It's entirely the Treasury official's fault Turnbull finds himself in the middle
of a political fiasco facing renewed calls for his resignation and frustrated and
despairing colleagues who wonder if it can get worse for the opposition.
This is Turnbull's -- not entirely unreasonable -- view of Grech now that the
Treasury official has admitted faking an email at the heart of allegations of the
inappropriate influence of a car dealer on Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan.

Of course, only two short months ago Grech was a supergrass, a respected
whistleblower on first-name terms with Turnbull, supplying political gold for
the opposition and boasting of setting traps for the unwary Swan, which
Gretch intended to spring himself.

Parliamentary questions he drafted were used, he was a star witness who
co-operated with the prosecution before and after his testimony, he used
"we" when talking about the opposition and was accepted at face value.
But now Turnbull and Grech have dramatically different versions of their
relationship, their co-operation and who's to blame for their two endangered
careers as they both fight for their professional lives.

Grech admits errors of judgment, he admits creating the false email, he admits
showing that email to Turnbull, he admits talking to a journalist about that email
and he says he did it all, "under enormous pressure" to ensure the quick passage
of the OzCar financing bill to save 2000 jobs.

But he denies ever giving anyone permission to disclose the contents of that
email -- and he would deny it given that he knew who the author was -- in any
form whatsoever and he didn't cite the email in his proposed parliamentary
questions for Turnbull and Abetz.

Turnbull admits no errors of judgment, says the greatest wrongdoing was the
creation of the fake email, admits seeing and taking notes of the email, denies
putting any pressure on Grech and says the opposition only disclosed the
contents of the email at the Senate hearings after getting the full text from a
journalist.

Both obviously feel betrayed by the other.

Grech's problem now is that he is unlikely to work for Treasury again and his
health is getting worse.

Turnbull's problem is that he is responsible politically for the debacle, no matter
how unfair that is or how much he blames Grech, he's still responsible and has
to act like he's responsible.

Turnbull should have apologised and moved on. He's now ensured he will be
pursued over his links with a liar and fraud and continue to be distracted.